The Dark Side of Syriza

Greece's newly elected prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, advocates debt relief and the abandonment of austerity. But, given that Tsipras and his Syriza party have made common cause with Europe's most reactionary forces, both at home and abroad, it is a mystery why so many on the European left are rejoicing.

OXFORD – On January 25, Greece voted decisively for change, removing from power the two political parties – New Democracy and Pasok – that have ruled the country in one form or another since the restoration of democracy in 1974. It was past time that voters did so.

Over the last four decades, Greece's leaders created a system of clientelism that transformed the country into the most unequal and socially unjust society in the European Union. Pasok, Greece's traditional party of the left, is mired in scandal and seems to have reached the end of the line, receiving just 4.6% of the vote.

The trouble is that, in voting for change, Greek voters took a leap into the dark. The newly elected prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, advocates debt relief and the abandonment of austerity – goals that have broad popular support. And many on the European left are rejoicing at Tsipras's outspoken rejection of German-imposed austerity as the only policy for Europe's troubled economies. But, though Tsipras and his party may be new, the other ideas that they espouse are old – and far from ideal for Greece or Europe.

What a load of rubbish! Is it not true that some European leader behave like "gangsters" of the loan-sharking kind? We are witnessing the bullying of a country in dire need by the rich and powerful, who demonstrably profitted from the profligacy of corrupt Greek elites. And isn't Greece a EU protectorate as a result of its debt? And hasn't said debt skyrocketed because of the imposed austerity and so-called "loan reliefs"? And who has benefitted most from those measures if not European banks, which passed the Greek burden onto the taxpayer? Who engineered all that if not European "gangsters"? What would your party, with its 6%, have contributed to the governments policies? ND-PASOK-like surrender to creditors' demands? And what more proof do you need of SYRIZA being a non-dogmatic radical party aside of the deal with the right-wing Independent Greeks? To Potami, and its agends, did not convince the Greek electorate and was rewarded with 6%. When your party becomes more appealing then you may winge if it is not taken seriously.

The first action of "To Potami" in the Greek Parliament was to make a question in favor of the former employer of its leader, Mr. Bobolas. For those who do not know Mr. Bobolas, he is the owner of (among others) a block of construction companies, the "National Constructor" as we call him due to his tight connections with the former governments. Those governments who gave him half of the EU's infrastructure and investment program for 2007-2013. So, you can easily understand the reason behind all the “crying” and the blind attack by the author in this article (often with direct or indirect propaganda- such as the connection that he tries to establish between SYRIZA and the leftists in the European South with Marine Le Pen and her far-right in France). SYRIZA realized that it would have been a hostage of your (To Potami) will and that of the business interests of your supporters. We are glad that it did not “hooked”; instead, it preferred to form a coalition with a party that is populist and rightist indeed, yet politically clean and not covered dirty business interests (as your eclipsing fraction).
Find another corner to cry Mr. Eleftheriades, Project Syndicate should not be used for your propaganda.

You have your priorities wrong; that is why you got just 6,5% and will be weakened still. Reduced austerity is not for a "strong" EU. It is for a balanced society in Europe. These things tend to be in conflicting courses for a long time.

Of course, a balanced society will create a strong EU, which allows you to call upon economists like Stiglitz and Crugman. But your article is empty of any positive proposal for Europe, starting from the title. You are worse than SYRIZA in offering only criticism.

We have unfortunately a similar situation in France where the "Front de gauche" insults systemically the neo-keynesians such as Krugman. The only difference with Syriza is that it is not nationalist but refuses any explanation which does not conform to its mantra reducing the causes of the eurozone crisis to the "banksters" wickedness, therefore excluding any macroeconomic explanation of this crisis and, thus, any macroeconomic solution at the EU level. Syriza and the Front de Gauche are only able to express a nostalgia of the old keynesianism of the 1960's which did not have to take account the interdependence and the heterogeneity of the EZ members, whereas the analyses of economists such as Paul Krugman and Simon Wren-Lewis take into account both this interdependence and this heterogeneity (see http://pierrejeanraugel.blog.lemonde.fr/2014/09/02/ne-negliger-ni-linterdependance-des-pays-de-la-zone-euro-ni-leur-heterogeneite/).

the EU is in favor of capitalists and against poeple (the 2 never cohabit). A bad loan was made (at high interest rate reflecting high risks). Obviously, the EU stands with the creditors and blackmail Greece (threat: to create a bank panic, as ECB would not lend to greek banks). Greece's bonds are held by big banks in germany and france, which want theface value of their bad loans.
Austerity doesn't work, we are 5 years down the crisis and the situation is a disaster. Take any other country that suffered from the same debt-peg problem (ex: argentina 2001): 5 years dow the line and after a devaluation (i.e. debt reduction), they were faring much better than greece. The EU/IMF/ECB impose on Greece a painful and innefective treatment. That author argues we should "just" convince the troika to adopt anti-austerity.. That was tried for many years and didn't deliver results. Now is the time for confrontation (which the pro-EU author's party can't do it seems): Either to restructure debt, lower interest rates and stay on the Euro.. or to leave the Euro and the EU without paying anything at all (i.e. if the Greek banking system is going to be doomed, the least Syriza should do is just to return the favor).

The Eurozone is a new kind of empire - but an incomplete one. To become an enduring empire, it must be fully united both politically and fiscally. Right now the only unity is monetary. With a debt-based common currency, this turns Germany into a creditor and Greece into a hopeless debtor. This is unsustainable, but there are two ways out. One is a breakup, back to independent countries. Another is full union. It isn't Greece's fault that Germany and France have balked at the sacrifices that they would have to make for full union. The election of Syriza is a natural outcome of a desperate situation.

I think leaders recently elected deserve our support -- at least until they drop the ball.

And at the very least, the first 100 days of any administration should be considered the honeymoon phase of any administration, with zero, or very little criticism in those early days.

If they've managed to 'hang themselves' in that short time span, it proves that it is the voters who have made a mistake.

If they've managed to get some positive things done, then they deserve a honeymoon extension. (100 days at a time)

One thing is for certain, the economic problems in Greece far predate the election of this government and far predate the EU.

All of Greece's problems were created long before the this Syriza administration and the formation of the EU.

If Greece is a 'debt colony' it was a debt colony of its own making (not a victim of the EU, but a victim of global bankers) and prior to the formation of the EU.

"Despair over poverty and insecurity has turned into anger toward the European project – which, sadly, is becoming an EU-wide pathology."

I agree with you wholeheartedly. As long as humans have been on the planet, there has been poverty and insecurity, these things were not suddenly created by the EU in a plot to capture Greece.

If anything, the postwar European project has been a stunning success -- and the respect that people of other nations feel towards Europe is well deserved.

The EU is merely part of that success story, one that is geared increasingly (and rightly so) towards getting ALL of Europe firing on all cylinders.

So many people, institutions, and governments, (EU and globally) are just waiting to jump in and assist Greece towards success, once they see more fiscal discipline and action on the systemic problems of Greece.

Everyone in and out of the EU wants success for Greece, but they don't want to be the ones subsidizing the overdue income taxes for some 50% of the Greek population that can't be bothered to file their income tax, or pay amounts owing to the government, for one example of a systemic problem.

Nowadays it is difficult to tell Alexis Tsipras to get real and Pavlos Eleftheriadis, a Greek himself has the courage to do so! Tsipras believes Greece is heading in the wrong direction and ought to ditch the austerity measures, dictated by international creditors for its bailout. He claims the election result reflected the mood and desire for radical change in both Greece and Europe, saying people were not prepared to settle for "barbarous memorandums" imposed by the "troika" - the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF.
Syriza's victory had not only its anti-austerity campaign, but also history and demography to thank for. In the past the political elite "had created a system of clientelism that transformed the country into the most unequal and socially unjust society". It had also cheated its way into the Eurozone. As politicians showered the voters with largesse, financed by cheap loans, voices of discontent were muted and "profligacy" was widespread. The public sector was bloated and many Greeks can remember throwing food away without qualms. Since the financial crisis, Greece had to cut spending and raise taxes, enraging the middle-class and creating high unemployment, which propelled young people towards radicalisation and rebellion.
Tsipras must feel vindicated that he was on the right track, since Keynesian economists like Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz also recommend an end of austerity. He is convinced that cutting jobs and services is the wrong policy to bring Greece's economy back on its feet. Yet it's unclear how he could balance the books, without structural reform. He has vowed to keep Greece in the Eurozone and in the EU, yet he has to honour the agreement his predecessors had agreed with the troika as well.
A new Greek drama will unfold, if Tsipras does not accept the reality and can not deliver. He may be naive, if he believed he could have his way with leaders like Angela Merkel, who holds her voters' purse strings. Germany is not the only country, that has a "deranged obsession with discipline", many north European countries share the same passion!

To Potami is an opportunistic party addressed to defeatists and apolitical people. The Greek society should expel treacherous clowns like those from Greece and the human kind should expel them from the planet. Their substance is communication and demagoguery, not politics, and Greece needs a government, not salesmen.

Now, what are the solutions Eleftheriadis offers? Nothing. Well, disappointing to see how Project Syndicate offers a platform for a failed politician (Eleftheriadis) to start a mud smearing campaign against the winners of the elections. This does more damage to Project Syndicate's reputation than anything else.

The idea that austerity is not an ideological project is marginal albeit highly popular among the Greek pro-memorandum "elites" who as of last year populated (so to speak ...) the ranks of the highly controversial Potami party. No wonder Mr Elefthriadis "forgets" to mention the work of Mark Blyth among the work of many others -- who helftily responds to his critics here: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/cep/journal/v11/n6/full/cep201325a.html

This article is a blind attack on Syriza, instead of building an alliance and common language and words as well as aim (end of austerity), which is the same aim you share with Syriza, you just spoil any idea of collaboration. It remindsof egoism and sectariansim. Too narrow minded for being a new and modern political party.

STiglitz Krugman et al calle for debt relief, not only for the end of austerity, and this was what Syriza wanted. So if Stiglitz and co agree with someone they seem to be more on the side of Syriza than To Potami.

Who are you Sr. ?
The dak side of Syriza is not under discussion,
anything is better that the criminals Like Samaras, or Papandreu o the rest of the greek political maffia
What you want to suggest ?
I want to see Tsipras mistakes before Greece again under the sinister Law of the former goverments.

The anti-austerity advocates you quote, Stiglitz, Krugman, Wren-Lewis (and many others), all agree - together with every, every, economy Nobel-Prize, being them leftists or rightists - that euro currency is a disastrous mistake. And what happened and is continuing happening in Europe is mainly because of the 1) Euro currency 2) Free, unregulated capital market, 3) absurd EU construction.
So, I'm sorry, Syriza policy is weak about this point (at least apparently), but your policy is even worse.
You and To Potami do not want change anything in Europe except Austerity, which is not wrong, but merely a nonsense. And to be against THIS antidemocratic Union doesn't mean to be anti-European, which is the typical fascist way of proposing the UE (not “European”) problems by the devotees of the new cargo cult of the “European flag”. Syriza was right in rejecting alliance with To Potami.
PS: “virulent nationalism”? Who is your pusher, Mr. Eleftheriadis?

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